This is your one
stop site for all information pertaining to your union. Please check
back often!!!
Officer and Executive
board news:
At the bottom of this page on the right
hand side there is "Find your Senator" and "Find your
Representative." We encourage everyone to use this. It is
easy to use and only takes a minute or so.
Please express to them any of your concerns on issues regarding
education in our state and issues
concerning your job in education. Do this calmly and
professionally. Always be brief. We need your voices!!
Please click
Here to see a great video on our EFM law and it's
impact.
Hi all,
I know you are getting
bombarded with questions regarding the retirement bill, SB
1040.
Below is a hot link to a new
analysis of the bill that will answer several of their
questions. Please feel free to forward this to them or
print and distribute as you see fit.
You may also let our members
know that their calls to legislator's offices are having an
effect and to keep up the good work. Also, the
committee chair has stated publicly that the July 1, 2012
date will be moved to later in the year and several other
(good) changes are being seriously considered.
The best advise for members
contemplating retirement is to sign up on MI Account (on
MPSERS), start filling out their paperwork (it takes some
time to complete) and hold it until we know more
information.
It is not time to panic, it
is time to call legislators and to plan.
Thanks and see you Saturday.
Louise
Suggestions and Questions
If you have any union questions please
direct them to your union representative. If you are not sure who your
representative is please e-mail the webmaster. The webmasters and your officers e-mail
addresses can be found at the bottom of the page.
If you have any suggestions that would
make this website better or more informative please e-mail the
webmaster.
Current News and information:
Petition Push this
Saturday
Volunteers with the Protect Our Jobs (POJ) coalition are
out in force and will be conducting a petition signature
blitz on Saturday, May 19th between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00
p.m. This blitz will target at least the following six
areas: Mt Clemens, Taylor, Detroit, Flint, Lansing, and
Saginaw. If you can't get to any of these locations
consider going out in your community on Saturday to a
high traffic location and collect some signatures. On
Saturday, volunteers will engage in three activities:
DOOR-TO-DOOR CANVASSING.
Volunteers will visit registered voters at their home
asking them to sign a petition.
PETITION GATHERING IN PUBLIC LOCATIONS.
Volunteers will be paired up or grouped in teams of four
and sent to pre-scouted locations to collect signatures.
SIGNATURE “DRIVE-THRU” EVENT.
This will take place in Mt Clemens across the street
from CWA Local 4008. People will be able to “drive thru”
and sign a petition without exiting their vehicle.
We need YOUR HELP at these POJ petition events
AREA LOCATION ADDRESSES:
DETROIT-
Detroit Federation of Teachers,
2875 W. Grand Blvd. Detroit
FLINT - UAW Region 1C,
1940 W Atherton, Flint
LANSING - Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 333,
5405 S. Martin Luther King Blvd., Lansing
MT. CLEMENS - CWA Local 4008,
145 Colonial Ct., Mt. Clemens
WESTERN WAYNE - UAW Region 1A,
9650 Telegraph Rd., Taylor
With the GOP primary effectively
over, Mitt Romney seems to have enough Republican
delegate votes to call himself the nominee. We now
know what we’re up against in November.
Romney’s views on public services couldn’t be clearer—they’re
in his own words—giving us a glimpse of what a
Romney presidency would look like.
A presidential candidate who is on record as being in
support of national “right-to-work” legislation, using
the Department of Education to go after teachers unions,
repealing the Affordable Care Act and passing the
Ryan/Republican budget is not a president who stands
with the American people.
P.S. We will need each and every one of you
between now and November.
Can we count you in?
“Corporations are
people, my friend.”
—Mitt
Romney, Aug. 11, 2011
“Corporations aren’t people. People are
people.” —President
Barack Obama, May 5, 2012
Jeff,
President Barack Obama officially kicked off his
re-election campaign—against Mitt Romney, the
person we now know will be the Republican
nominee. When we endorsed President Obama and
Vice President Joe Biden for re-election, we
said that this election is not a referendum,
it’s a choice: The choice between these two
candidates could not be any clearer. And now
that the battle—and make no mistake about it,
this is a battle for our country’s future—has
begun, it is time for all of us to fully commit
to working to re-elect President Obama.
Simply too much is at stake to do otherwise.
President Obama’s record of accomplishments and
his commitment to fight for the middle class
earned him the AFT’s endorsement in February.
The Republican primaries put Romney’s priorities
on full view, making it clear that he and
President Obama don’t just have different
visions for our country’s future, they have
different views of who we are as a people.
We will need each and every one of you between
now and November. Can we count you in?
Although the AFT has not always agreed with the
administration, President Obama knows that
our country cannot prosper without a strong
middle class. And he knows that we can
rebuild the middle class by investing in
education and job creation, giving everyone a
fair shot at success, and ensuring that burdens
do not fall disproportionately on our neediest
neighbors while tax loopholes protect the
wealthy from contributing their fair share.
In the weeks and months ahead, I will be
traveling to many of your states—joining you in
our campaign work. Your efforts are critical.
The AFT has a well-deserved reputation for
strong and effective support of the candidates
we endorse. Our greatest asset is you, our
members. Working together, we will celebrate
President Obama’s re-election in November.
Can we count you in?
Randi
AFT President
Jeff,
Senate Republicans will vote today
against a student loan bill that would keep
interest rates from doubling. If Congress
doesn’t reach an agreement by July 1 on how to
keep student loan interest rates low, students
will see their rates rise from 3.4 percent to
6.8 percent, an average increase of $1,000 for
7.4 million Americans.
Don’t let Congress double the interest rates for
student loans. Tell the Senate that this bill
deserves an up-or-down vote.
The Senate version of the bill pays for keeping
down student loan interest rates by closing tax
loopholes for corporations and the wealthy.
This isn’t a new tax—it stops wealthy Americans
from dodging taxes they are already required to
pay.
We need to act now. Tell your senators that this
bill must come to a vote.
Republicans in Congress have supported the Ryan
budget that asks students to pay double their
interest rates. Their budget also would slash
Pell Grants for millions of students, and would
eliminate access to work-study job opportunities
for 100,000 students by 2014 in order to fund
tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
It’s time congressional Republicans stop
protecting the wealthiest Americans and require
them to pay their fair share. College
students and middle-class families should not
bare the brunt of rising costs while wealthy
individuals and corporations are not held to the
same standards.
Tell the Senate: Don’t double student loan
interest rates.
In unity,
Tor Cowan
AFT Legislative Director
Jeff,
College students are graduating in a rising
sea of debt, with
interest rates for federal student loans
set to double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent on July 1
if no action is taken by Congress. The effect
will be felt beyond current students and those
about to enter college. It also will hurt
families struggling to find a way to help these
students gain access to higher education.
Last week, the House Republican majority
pushed through a student aid bill that
prioritizes wealthy individuals and corporations
over students and their families. The Senate is
now trying to make it right.
Let them know you’re watching.
If Congress doesn’t act by July 1, the
interest rate on new student federal loans,
called Stafford loans, is set to double
automatically from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.
This will affect more than 7.4 million students
as well as those who are college-bound,
increasing their cost by an average of $1,000.
Most agree there could hardly be a worse time to
double the interest rates on student loans. The
issue is: How do we pay for it?
There is a right way and a wrong way to
address the doubling of student loan interest
rates.
The right way: The Stop
the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of
2012, which will be voted on the week of May
7, would keep college accessible and
affordable by requiring wealthy Americans to
pay their fair share of taxes, like the rest
of us.
The wrong way: The
Republican-led bill passed last week in the
House would eliminate funding from the
Prevention and Public Health Fund,
sacrificing women’s and children’s
preventive healthcare.
Students are swimming in a rising sea of
debt. In April, the nation’s student debt burden
crossed the $1 trillion mark—surpassing total
national credit card debt. Students are
graduating from college with an average of
$25,000 in loans to repay. For recent grads, the
burden is especially daunting. They face higher
rates of unemployment because of the current
economy, and low entry-level wages if they are
lucky enough to find jobs. For many, loan
repayment obligations affect major life
decisions, like buying a home and starting a
family.
May 21, 2012 12:30pm - 4:15pm McGregor Memorial
Conference Center,
Wayne State University
Program: 12:30 - 1p.m.
Conference Registration 1 - 2:15p.m.
Introductions
Mark Gaffney, Teamsters
Marick Masters, Labor@Wayne 1:15 - 2:15p.m.
Barry Bluestone, Northeastern University
Jeff Keefe, Rutgers University 2:15 - 3:30p.m.
Chris Michalakis, Metro Detroit, AFL-CIO
Herbert Sanders, AFSCME Council 25
Phil Thompson, SEIU 517
Diann Woodard, American Federation of School
Administrators 3:30 - 4:15p.m.
David Hecker, AFT Michigan, Keynote Speaker
co-sponsors:
Michigan Labor Management Association and
Metropolitan Detroit Chapter of ASPA
You can
RSVP here For more information
contact the Office of Special Events and
Services at 313-577-0300
Parking available in
Structure #1. $5 per car. Credit card
only.
April 2012
Capitol Report - Latest Headlines
To: AFT Michigan Members and Retirees
The April 2012 Capitol Report is now available
on the AFT Michigan website.
The Capitol Report gives you the latest news out
of Lansing on issues the legislature is working
on that may effect your work and life.
Here are the headlines in the April Capitol
Report:
Bill Expands Cyber Schools
All Education Budgets Pass House/Senate
2012-2013 K-12 School Aid Budgets -
HOUSE and SENATE Comparison
2012-2013 Higher Education Budgets HOUSE
and SENATE Comparison
2012-2013 Community College Budget -
HOUSE and SENATE Comparison
Expanding Dual Enrollment
School Aid for Non-public School
Students' Instruction
Dear Friends:
In a narrow 56-54 vote, our House of
Representatives voted last week to place thousands
of Michigan children into “cyber schools,” taking
them out of real classrooms and draining as much as
$210 million in desperately needed revenue from our
public schools.
However, it's not too late to stop this
taxpayer rip-off in its tracks. The Michigan House
of Representatives will re-consider SB 619, the
cyber schools bill, today, Tuesday, May 1.
Because the original vote was so close, we’ve still
got a chance to turn this around. We need just one
Representative to change his or her vote.
For-profit cyber schools have no
accountability, no track record of success, and no
plan to provide comprehensive academic services,
transportation, art, music, athletics or special
education.
What they do have is plan to milk the
taxpayers: Charge full price for each child
enrolled in cyber school, drill them long-distance
at a fraction of the cost of a real school… and
pocket the difference.
Teachers, parents, student and school
officials are united against this
wrong-headed move. So who’s for it -- besides
the for-profit companies that will get top dollar
for bottom-of-the-barrel services?
Your state legislator could be the one
who makes the difference. Click here to
find his or her phone and email, and please contact
him or her right away.
Urge your Representative to support
reconsidering last week's vote by which SB 619
passed and voting NO on SB 619 . Please make a
call or send an email today -- this vote is
scheduled for this afternoon, Tuesday, May 1, 2012.
Thanks for all you do,
Todd, Roger and the
WATP team
P.S. If your
Representative is already voting the right way thank
them and reach out and urge Representative
Zorn to change his vote on SB 619. Zorn was the
tie breaking vote last time and we need to let him
know he has a second chance on today to do the right
thing.
(I apologize for the errors and multiple
emails - the correct date is TUESDAY, MAY 1,
sorry for the confusion - Julie)
Every parent knows the drill: To raise healthy,
active children, we need to limit the time our
sons and daughters spend staring at computer,
TV, and mobile device screens.
Incredibly, the Michigan legislature is moving
in the opposite direction. In a narrow 56-54
vote, our House of Representatives voted last
week to place thousands of Michigan children
into “cyber schools,” taking them out of real
classrooms and draining as much as $210 million
in desperately needed revenue from our public
schools.
For-profit cyber schools have no accountability,
no track record of success, and no plan to
provide comprehensive academic services,
transportation, art, music, athletics or special
education.
What they do have is plan to milk the
taxpayers: Charge full price for each child
enrolled in cyber school, drill them
long-distance at a fraction of the cost of a
real school… and pocket the difference.
Teachers, parents, student and school officials
are united against this wrong-headed move. So
who’s for it -- besides the for-profit companies
that will get top dollar for
bottom-of-the-barrel services?
The Michigan House of Representatives will
re-consider SB619, the cyber schools bill, on
Tuesday, May 1. Because the original vote was
so close, we’ve still got a chance to turn this
around. If just one legislator changes his or
her vote, we can stop this taxpayer rip-off in
its tracks.
Your state legislator could be the one who makes
the difference.
Click here to find his or her phone and
email, and please contact him or her right
away.
Urge your Representative to vote NO on SB 619.
Please make a call or send an email today --
this vote is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon,
May 1.
Thanks for all you do
Jeff,
The House vote this morning didn’t go down as
we had hoped. The Republican majority pushed
through a bill that protects wealthy oil
corporations over the middle class. There is a
wrong way and a right way to address the
doubling of student loan interest rates from 3.4
percent to 6.8 percent, and they did it the
wrong way.
Rather than finding common ground on how to
pay for the cost of keeping interest rates low,
House Republicans decided to rob Peter to pay
Paul by eliminating the entire funding for the
Prevention and Public Health Fund. This fund
was created to help prevent disease, detect it
early and manage conditions before they become
severe. Women, in particular, will benefit from
this fund, which would provide for hundreds of
thousands of screenings for breast and cervical
cancer.
The House and Senate Republicans are playing
politics and not providing a serious response to
the problem facing America’s college students.
The Senate has a chance to do this the
right way. Senate Democrats have proposed
closing tax loopholes to require the wealthiest
Americans and corporations pay their fair share.
The students and families this bill was designed
to help should not be forced to trade their
health in return.
Bob King, President, United Auto Workers
Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club
Leo Gerard, President, United Steelworkers
Congressman Hansen Clarke
Daniel Poneman, Deputy Secretary, US Department of
Energy
David Hecker, President, American Federation of
Teachers Michigan
And other labor, environmental and green business
leaders at the Detroit Marriott for the 2012 Good
Jobs Green Jobs Midwestern Regional Conference the
nation’s premier event for sharing ideas and
strategies on building the green economy — and
creating good jobs along the way.
The Midwest is a leader
in clean energy and good, green job creation,
showing that building a clean energy economy creates
jobs, improves the environment, and stimulates the
economy. While great strides have been made, there
are still huge steps to take to ensure we are
creating a sustainable environment and economy for
future generations.
Register today!
How can businesses
capitalize on clean energy advances in the Midwest?
Is our workforce prepared to meet the demands of
clean energy employers? What sectors are expected to
gain good, green jobs? These are some of the
questions that will be discussed at the 2012 Good
Jobs, Green Jobs Midwestern Regional Conference, May
10-11, in Detroit.
Click
here to register.
For two days,
Conference-goers can take part in exciting plenaries
and more than
40
workshops focused on topics ranging from
clean energy manufacturing to state and local
initiatives to green infrastructure and
transportation.
Take a minute to view the workshops.
Millions of workers
remain unemployed.
But that didn’t stop
S&P 500 companies
from raising CEO pay
by almost 14 percent
in 2011—to nearly
$13 million on
average—while
shipping jobs
overseas.
Want to learn more
about the deplorable
practices of the 1%
and see how your pay
stacks up next to
the richest CEOs in
your state?
I wanted
to give you a chance to be one of the first
people to check out the new AFL-CIO
Executive PayWatch website—this year’s
version is called CEO Pay and the 99%. It’s
your one-stop shop for the most recent
information on out-of-control CEO pay and
what you can do to stop it.
Go to www.PayWatch.org now to search
through our updated database on CEO pay,
compare your pay with CEOs in your state and
across the country and share the shocking
results with your friends and family.
At
www.PayWatch.org, we
highlight both the unbelievable overall
statistics and examples of corporate greed
run amok, like Verizon.
• The average CEO now makes
an astonishing 380 times what the average
worker makes. That ratio used to be 42
times in 1980.
• The average CEO of an S&P
500 company got a nearly 14 percent increase
last year. They now make an average of
almost $13 million—while millions of jobless
workers spent countless hours searching for
work. Many jobs were shipped overseas, and
people fortunate enough to keep a job were
lucky to get a basic cost-of-living
increase.
• S&P 500 companies last
year had more than $1 trillion
amassed in cash. That’s enough money to
create a living-wage job, for a year, for
every single American who is unemployed,
underemployed or has stopped looking for
work.
Runaway CEO pay isn’t just bad for our
economy, it’s bad for the morale of working
families, too. All workers, from the
executive suite down to the shop floor,
contribute to making a company successful.
But these corporations are buying into the
myth that the success of a corporation is
the result of its CEO alone.
Without the painter, office assistant,
welder, electrician and hundreds of millions
of workers who work every day to support
their families and keep our economy going,
our society could not work.
America can continue with failed policies
that offer increasing rewards to corporate
profiteers who cut jobs and load up their
own pockets—like Mitt Romney did when he was
at Bain Capital (1)—or we can work together
to make our economy work for everyone. A
simple place to start is getting CEO pay
under control.
Corporate-bought politicians are taking aim at
workers again. And this time, they’ve got
fair elections for workers in the crosshairs.
In December, the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB)—the federal agency that protects workers’
rights—issued a rule that modernizes the NLRB
election process and helps ensure workers have a
fair way to form a union without unfair delays
and manipulation of the process by employers.
Now, anti-worker politicians in Congress are
trying to ram through a resolution to undo this
modest step forward for the 99%.
By limiting delays and frivolous litigation, the
NLRB’s rule helps ensure that workers who want
to vote to form their own union have a fair
opportunity to do so.
From the day a worker is hired, companies have
every opportunity to communicate with employees
about the pros and cons of having a union. But
extremists have pushed a congressional
resolution that would overturn the NLRB’s new
election procedures: They’re trying to pay back
their corporate donors by slashing workers’
rights on the job once again.
The stakes are too high for working families
to stay on the sidelines. If
corporate-backed politicians pass this week’s
attack on fair elections, they’ll:
Resurrect the barriers workers face when
they want a simple up-or-down vote on
forming a union,
giving an unfair advantage to law-breaking
CEOs.
Encourage costly delays and litigation,
paving the way for employers who want to
retaliate against workers.
Make it
even harder for employees to form a union
and negotiate for fair pay and benefits,
weakening the middle class and our chances
at a brighter economic future.
From
statehouses across the country to Congress, the
forces of the 1% are openly and brazenly waging
war on workers.
This attack on the NLRB is just the latest in
this relentless series of nationally coordinated
assaults on workers and collective bargaining
rights. Rather than working together to create
jobs, restore tax fairness and jumpstart our
economy, extreme legislators are pushing
divisive policies that put workers' rights on
the chopping block.
Corporate politicians won’t let up until even
the most modest workplace protections have been
eliminated. But you can help stop this attack
in its tracks.
Warren Buffett, like many of his fellow
millionaires and billionaires, pays a
lower percent of his income in taxes than his
secretary pays. Meanwhile, over the last 30
years, tax rates for middle-class families have
barely budged. With Tax Day tomorrow, we are
reminded how unfair our current system really
is. Buffett and President Obama agree.
That’s why the president has proposed the
“Buffett Rule,” which will be voted on today.
According to a new Gallup Poll, a majority of
Americans support the Buffett Rule. One survey
found that two-thirds of millionaires support it
too. The Buffett Rule will ensure that if you
make more than $1 million a year, you should pay
at least the same percentage of your income in
taxes as middle-class families do. If you make
less than $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of
American families, your taxes won’t go up.
As President Obama said in his weekly
address, “As many Americans rush to file their
taxes this weekend, it’s worth pointing out that
we’ve got a tax system that doesn’t always
uphold the principle of everyone doing their
part. This is not just about fairness. This
is also about growth. It’s about being able to
make the investments we need to strengthen our
economy and create jobs.”
In unity, John Ost AFT Political
Director
P.S. Want to see how many millionaires pay
a lower effective tax rate than you?
Click here to find out.
Dear Jeff,
With tax day coming next week (April 17),
don’t you think everyone should pay their fair
share? President Obama thinks so. Right now,
many high-income Americans pay less in taxes
than middle-class Americans do. That’s why the
president has proposed the “Buffett Rule,”
also known as the Paying a Fair Share Act of
2012 which will be voted on early next week.
The Buffett Rule will ensure that if you make
more than $1 million a year, you should pay
at least the same percentage of your income in
taxes as middle class families do. If you
make under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of
American families, your taxes shouldn’t go up.
Millionaires and billionaires are paying less
in taxes now than they did 50 years ago. We
simply can’t afford to keep doing this when we
have to educate our children, care for our
senior citizens and protect our college students
from soaring student loan rates. Those who are
doing well should pay their fair share.
As President Obama said, “We can either
settle for an economy where a few people do
really well and everyone else struggles to get
by, or we can build an economy where hard work
pays off again—where everyone gets a fair shot,
everyone does their fair share and everyone
plays by the same rules.”
Make sure the Senate hears us loud and clear.
In unity, John Ost AFT Political
Director
P.S. Curious to see how many millionaires
pay a lower effective tax rate than you?
Click here to find out.
Join Us on
Tax Day
This Tax Day, make
it clear you support
economic fairness
and want our
lawmakers to put our
country’s needs
ahead of Tea Party
politics and fat-cat
corporate donors.
Hi, I’m Andy Richards, the
latest addition to the AFL-CIO Digital
Strategies team. I’m writing today with an
important request. Can you join a Tax Day
action in your area?
Working people work hard,
play by the rules and pay our taxes each
year—but some politicians think it’s OK to
exempt the 1% from the costs of building a
stronger economy that works for everyone.
Did you know
Mitt Romney paid an effective tax rate last
year of just 15.4 percent of his income?
That’s a lower tax rate than a family making
$50,000 per year.1
Early next week, the Senate is
expected to vote on the Buffett Rule, which
would make sure millionaires and
billionaires don’t pay lower tax rates than
their secretaries.2
The Buffett Rule is a very modest
first step toward restoring some fairness to
our tax system. But Romney opposes the
Buffett rule—he wants Congress to keep
coddling the super-rich. And next week,
extreme right-wing politicians in Washington
are getting ready to follow his lead and
block this commonsense plan to make sure
millionaires and billionaires stop getting
sweetheart treatment.
On Tax Day,
help send the message that everyone should
pay a fair share in taxes.
Working families across the country will
join Tax Day actions on Tuesday, April 17.
Will you be there? Help build momentum for
restoring tax fairness. Maybe your
community will play a game of “Corporate
Tax-Dodger Ball,” as St. Louis is. Or a
“Three Stooges Tax Day Rally” action like
one coming up in Florida. Whatever the
action, hardworking people like you will be
out in the streets on Tax Day to tell
Congress to put our country’s needs ahead of
partisan politics and corporate donors.
Together, we can send
politicians a strong message and highlight
unfair tax policies that give the 1%, like
Mitt Romney, huge tax breaks and let rich
corporations like GE pay $0 in taxes—while
working families are left holding the bag.
It’s time to
restore a strong middle class and bring
about broadly shared prosperity. To do it,
working people need to raise our voices
now—and keep speaking out—to influence the
national debate.
Michigan politicians are on the verge of
making a big mistake--diverting our tax
dollars away from public schools and into
the hands of unaccountable, for-profit
corporations. Under the proposed Senate Bill
619, Michigan would allow more so-called
"cyber schools" to take over education from
our neighborhood schools.
The
fact is, these "cyber-schools" don't
work--they don't deliver a better education
to kids and they don't save the state money.
The only real winners from shifting kids
from neighborhood schools to "cyber-schools"
are the big-money corporations that profit
from these online programs.
Tell your state legislators: Put kids
first--not corporations.
Let's call this what it is: an attack on
Michigan schools and our kids by
out-of-state corporations. The only question
is why Michigan legislators--the people who
should be working for us--are letting it
happen. They need to listen to you, not big
corporate donors.
With tax day coming next week (April 17),
don’t you think everyone should pay their fair
share? President Obama thinks so. Right now,
many high-income Americans pay less in taxes
than middle-class Americans do. That’s why the
president has proposed the “Buffett Rule,”
also known as the Paying a Fair Share Act of
2012 which will be voted on early next week.
The Buffett Rule will ensure that if you make
more than $1 million a year, you should pay
at least the same percentage of your income in
taxes as middle class families do. If you
make under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of
American families, your taxes shouldn’t go up.
Millionaires and billionaires are paying less
in taxes now than they did 50 years ago. We
simply can’t afford to keep doing this when we
have to educate our children, care for our
senior citizens and protect our college students
from soaring student loan rates. Those who are
doing well should pay their fair share.
As President Obama said, “We can either
settle for an economy where a few people do
really well and everyone else struggles to get
by, or we can build an economy where hard work
pays off again—where everyone gets a fair shot,
everyone does their fair share and everyone
plays by the same rules.”
Make sure the Senate hears us loud and clear.
In unity, John Ost AFT Political
Director
P.S. Curious to see how many millionaires
pay a lower effective tax rate than you?
Click here to find out.
Don’t you
dare, T-Mobile!
Urgent:
T-Mobile is planning
to cut 3,300 U.S.
jobs—on top of
thousands they’ve
already offshored.
Make your voice
heard.
Last month, T-Mobile
announced plans to close seven major call
centers nationwide.
T-Mobile’s decision means
cutting 3,300 American jobs, on top of
hundreds already lost because of T-Mobile’s
downsizing—and 6,000 lost because of
outsourcing to the Philippines and Honduras.
We will deliver your
letter—along with tens of thousands of
others—next week at the T-Mobile
headquarters in Washington State.
T-Mobile’s workers and customers
are connected—and if this job-cutting plan
goes through, both lose. Each lost
T-Mobile job means another working family
facing an uncertain future—and many
customers facing uncertain service.
T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm’s plan to lay off
thousands is bad for T-Mobile workers who
take pride in their work, bad for T-Mobile
customers who count on top-notch service and
bad for the U.S. economy.
When customers buy a T-Mobile cell
phone, they count on T-Mobile workers to
provide top-notch service. And T-Mobile
workers do. They take pride in their work.
We know that dedicated service
professionals whom T-Mobile customers count
on—folks from Thornton, Colo., to
Brownsville, Texas—will lose their jobs on
June 22 if this plan goes forward. But we
also know that if enough of us stand
together and raise our voices, we can force
the company to reconsider.
"Children have to be educated, but they have also
to be left to educate themselves." Ernest
Dimnet
"Education is a progressive discovery of
your own ignorance." Will Durant
"Education is a better
safeguard of liberty than a standing army."
Edward Everett
"To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to
forgive
them is cruelty." Maximilien Robespierre
"It was the labor movement that
helped secure so much of what we take for granted today.
The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave,
health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement
plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all
bear the union label."Barack Obama
"If I went to
work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a
union." Franklin D. Roosevelt
If so, and you're a school employee on break
this week, please join us in Lansing
Wednesday morning to oppose Senate Bill
1040, which would increase costs and reduce
benefits for both current and future retirees.
Please reply to this message if you can be
there!
Press Conference on Public School Pension
Legislation
When: Wed. April 11, 9am
Where: Room 402 & 403 Capitol Building, Lansing,
MI
Senate
Committee Hearing on SB 1040
When: 10am Where: Boji Tower Senate Hearing
Room (across street from Capitol)
AFT Michigan has helped pull together the
Coalition for a Secure Retirement, which
includes all the major unions representing
school employees, and together we will be
calling attention to the fact that increasing
what retirees on fixed incomes pay for health
care is NOT FAIR! Pulling the rug out from under
current employees who have been contributing to
their pension is NOT FAIR! Legislators need to
hear that breaking promises to school employees
is unfair and unacceptable.
Will you join us in Lansing Wednesday? Hit
reply to RSVP.
If you are a retiree who receives health care
benefits from MPSERS, you have every right to be
alarmed. SB 1040 proposes a substantial increase
in what you currently pay for your retiree
health benefits. In some cases, it
nearly doubles it. For pre-Medicare
retirees, the amount that will be deducted from
your pension every month would
increase as follows depending on your coverage:
JUST YOURSELF: DEDUCTION WOULD INCREASE
FROM $99.90 TO $129.04
SELF AND SPOUSE: DEDUCTION WOULD
INCREASE FROM $155.25 TO $239.74
SELF AND CHILD(REN): DECUTION WOULD
INCREASE FROM $124.25 TO $177.38
SELF, SPOUSE & CHILD: DEDUCTION WOULD
INCREASE FROM $179.59 TO $288.43
These amounts do not even include the
additional $12 per month that those in the
Master Health Care Plan pay for prescription
drug coverage. And they fail to reflect the
increases in costs that have happened nearly
annually, such as the $100 annual increases this
year in both your medical coinsurance maximums
and your deductibles! It is unprecedented for
legislators to change laws regarding retirement
benefits in ways that affect people who have
already retired and are on fixed incomes. Yet,
that is what SB 1040 does. If it passes as
introduced, your monthly pensions will see a big
bite taken out of them.
If this proposal concerns you,
come to Lansing on Wednesday, April 11,
where the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
on Retirement is taking testimony on SB
1040, a bill that would make this and many
changes that will negatively affect school
employees who have yet to retire. The
Subcommittee meets from 10-12:00 and from
1:00 onwards in the Senate Hearing Room of
the Boji Tower,
124 West Allegan Street, Lansing -
just across the street from the State
Capitol.
At this hearing, we expect much of the
morning will be taken up with staff overview and
questions from the Subcommittee to the Office of
Retirement Services. Then testimony is opened up
to the public. Anyone can testify - all you have
to do is fill out a card with your name and
address on it. In general, people who testify
are asked to keep their comments under 5
minutes. If you would like to tell the
subcommittee how SB 1040 will affect you and
your family, all you have to do is show up and
request a chance to talk. Or, just show up and
help AFT Michigan fill the room with active
members and retirees, all having the same
message: IT'S NOT FAIR!
And...don't forget to let your state senator
and state representative know how you feel about
SB 1040. Remind them that your pensions are now
subject to state income tax, so increasing what
you have to pay for health benefits is NOT FAIR!
The
Michigan Legislature is once again
proposing cuts to our school employee pension
benefits. Senate Bill 1040 increase the amount
current employees pay into the system and double
the monthly health care premiums for retirees!
These cuts are being discussed in Lansing
on Wednesday, April 10. Please reply to this
email if you can join us at the Capitol to make
your voice heard.
This is unfair, particularly for retirees who
thought they had a clear picture of what their
income and expenses would be and already had
their pensions taxed by this Legislature last
year.
Please call your
State Senator and State Representative
today and tell them to oppose SB 1040 and any
further cuts to our retirement security. You can
find your legislators by clicking
here.
Please let me know if you can join us in
Lansing the morning of April 10,
Dave Dobbie
You are receiving this message because you
have requested to receive email from the AFT
Michigan Retiree Network. You may also keep up
with legislative, political, and other
information of interest to retirees on the
AFT Michigan Retiree Network website,
the
AFT Michigan Facebook page, or follow
us on
Twitter.
The
USDA wants to
cut corners and risk
putting unsafe
chicken on the
market and on your
kitchen table with
their new “dirty
chicken” rule—all to
save a quick buck.
Meanwhile,
billionaires and
corporations are
getting tax breaks.
It’s shocking.
I hope you don’t mind a
little salmonella and E. coli in your
chicken. Because if the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) gets its way, chicken
contaminated with disease, feathers and
other really disgusting stuff could be on
its way to your dinner plate within the year.
We count on USDA inspectors to help us
keep our families safe and healthy. But the
USDA wants to save money by throwing about
1,000 of them out of work.
About 3,000 Americans die
from food-borne illnesses each year. But
instead of doing more to protect our
families, the USDA is taking budget cuts out
on the inspectors we need. Not only would
about 1,000 get the boot—the inspectors who
keep their jobs would be told to inspect 175
chickens per minute. That’s more than three
chickens per second!
Working
people like us, and like USDA inspectors,
take pride in our work. We work hard and
make a difference. USDA’s “dirty chicken”
rule would take that away while endangering
our families.
This week, food inspection workers (members
of the AFGE) rallied outside the USDA to
oppose this frightening measure—but a rally
alone won’t stop this plan. We need massive
public pressure.
This new
inspection system for poultry slaughter
plants is another example of attacks on
everyday working people while
billionaires and corporations are getting
tax breaks. And this time, it’s putting our
kids and families at risk while taking jobs
away from people we count on. It’s shocking.
Tell the USDA you won’t settle for dirty
chicken. Sign the petition today.
Only by standing together can we
save the jobs of hundreds of federal workers
who we count on to protect our families.
P.S. In his new book, Rebuild the
Dream, Van Jones, a former Obama White
House adviser on green jobs and an
award-winning human rights activist, maps
out how to turn Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
and the American Dream into reality. Click here to learn more and
order your copy.
March 2012
Capitol Report & Education Budgets
To: AFT Michigan Members and Retirees
The March 2012 Capitol Report is now
available on the AFT Michigan website.
Read about
fellow members like Nancy Wolff, who started
Books Behind Bars, a book club program for
female prison inmates, and who recently
liquidated her home and used the proceeds from
the sale of her possessions to buy more books
for the program.
And Ryan Marquis
from Alaska, who volunteered—not once, but
twice—to go to Wisconsin last year to help
combat Gov. Scott Walker’s ambush on public
employees and their unions.
These are
just two of the inspiring AFT Everyday Hero
stories that epitomize the spirit of public
service, camaraderie and compassion that
inspires us all to make a difference in our
chosen fields and in our communities.
The semifinalist who gets the most
votes in each division will be named his or her
division’s 2012 Everyday Hero and will be
honored at this year’s AFT convention.
We would like to
congratulate everyone who was chosen as an AFT
Everyday Hero semifinalist. And thank you to
those of you who took the time to nominate your
colleagues as AFT Everyday Heroes. We could
not recognize and honor these exemplary members
without you!
In unity,
Kris Havens AFT Communications
Director
OUTRAGE
The
National Labor
Relations Board’s
(NLRB)
inspector general
reports Romney
adviser Peter
Schaumber was
provided internal,
confidential,
attorney-client
privileged
information that he
used to support his
business practice
and attack the NLRB.
Mitt Romney’s labor adviser, Peter
Schaumber, has gone too far. The
inspector general of the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) found that improper,
unethical disclosures of privileged
information to Schaumber were used to
benefit his consulting practice and attack
the NLRB—the federal agency tasked with
protecting workers’ rights.1
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member on
the House Oversight Committee, says the
concerns raised in the inspector general’s
report are “very serious and involve
potential criminal implications.”2
How candidate Romney responds to these
findings is a test of his character.
Will Romney embrace Washington insiders who
trade on confidential and even
attorney-client privileged information? Or
will he demand they abide by the same
ethical standards the rest of us—the
99%—pride ourselves on and expect others to
live up to?
According to the report of the NLRB’s Office
of the Inspector General and news reports,
here’s what we know about Romney adviser
Peter Schaumber:
He
was named to the NLRB by President
George W. Bush and served until Aug. 27,
2010. After he left the agency,
Schaumber marketed himself as a
“consultant” with “[NLRB] agency
connections.” During that time, he
did press work to attack the NLRB and
the modest workplace protections workers
have.2
Schaumber benefited from the improper
and unethical receipt of confidential,
inside information
to support his anti-worker consulting
business and his press work aimed at
giving the NLRB a bad name. The
inappropriate disclosures were made to
Schaumber from his former staffer,
Terence Flynn—who remained at the NLRB
and became a board member.1
Flynn
acted as Schaumber’s mole inside the
agency,
feeding him internal, confidential,
attorney-client privileged information.
According to the IG report, this broke
government ethics rules. Flynn needs to
resign immediately, and Romney needs to
hold Schaumber accountable.1,3
This funneling of privileged information
is an outrageous example of how the 1% gets
things done at the 99%’s expense. If
candidate Romney allows Peter Schaumber to
remain as an adviser, it will speak volumes
about the value he places on ethics in
government officials.
Last week, thousands of AFT activists pledged
to stand against Rep. Paul Ryan's reckless
budget plan that would hurt Americans and our
struggling economy. Today, you can add your
voice to those who are urging their U.S.
representatives to oppose the budget resolution,
which the House Budget Committee has passed. Call your representative today.
The Republicans' fiscal year 2013 budget
resolution fails to offer a sensible path
forward for creating jobs, rebuilding the middle
class, caring for our most vulnerable citizens
and dealing with our long-term economic
stability. Instead, it prioritizes tax breaks
for upper-income Americans and corporations,
while dramatically cutting discretionary funds
that support education, training and health
initiatives that are essential to educating our
children and helping our economy grow. What's
more, the budget resolution would end
Medicare as we know it and leave seniors
without access to affordable, high-quality
healthcare; it also would make attending college
more costly. The resolution would do nothing to
help Americans find good jobs, keep their homes
and ensure their children have a better and
brighter future.
The American people can't afford a reckless
economic plan that says you're on your own
unless you're wealthy or a big corporation.
Instead, we need a bold economic vision
that is rooted in rebuilding the middle class,
strengthening our public schools and our
democracy, and ensuring that everyone has a fair
shot at success.
Call today.
Legislation has been proposed for a major
overhaul of the Michigan Public School Employees
Retirement System (MPSERS). If passed in
its present form,
Senate Bill 1040 will slash public
school employee pensions, increase retiree
health care cost, and cut health care benefits
for FUTURE HIRES, CURRENT EMPLOYEES AND
CURRENT RETIREES.
This legislation is being rushed through the
process. Proponents have planned
legislative hearing starting as soon as they
return from their spring break. The bill
could be signed into law as early as the end of
May. Now is the time to act!
Many people have been emailing and calling with
questions about how this legislation will affect
their current or planned retirement. I
would suggest if you have questions about this
bill that you CALL YOUR
STATE SENATOR and your
STATE REPRESENTATIVE! They need to
understand that what they are doing will impact
real people, not “public school employees.”
If they are forced to answer questions from
their constituents perhaps they will gain a
better understanding of what they are being
asked to vote for. So this time I don’t
want you to just call and ask them to vote NO on
the bill, I want you to force the legislators
and their staff to answer your specific
retirement questions and concerns.
Senate Bill 1040 “fixes” the retirement system
in a way that will hurt not only those who are
mid-career; it will hurt some of the neediest
workers and the elderly. Unfortunately it
doesn’t stand alone; it’s one more in a string
of laws, and proposed laws, directly aimed at
weakening collective bargaining, hurting
middle-class families, and hurting teachers and
other education workers in the public school
system.
It is time to push back –
Call your legislators – they need to hear
from real people who will be affected by this.
Contribute to the PAC Fund – if we don’t
like the decisions coming out of Lansing then we
need to change who is making the decisions.
Use the button at the top or send a check!
Sign the Protect Our Jobs collective
bargaining petitions - please contact your
local union or email
Nikhol Atkins at AFT Michigan if you
need petitions.
We can stop this kind of legislation from
happening, but only if we can either convince
the current legislators that it is a bad idea,
or replace them with someone new in November.
Press Release quoting John Olekszyk,
Chairperson of the AFT Michigan Retiree Chapter
Dear Friend,
The next time you visit a loved one in the
hospital, ask their nurse how many patients he
or she is caring for, and pay close attention to
the answer. If it’s more than four and your
loved one is on an acute care unit, your loved
one’s chances of infection, injury or death
increase dramatically.
As a Registered Nurse, I see firsthand how
collective bargaining directly impacts
patients and quality of care. Collective
bargaining is a vital tool to ensure patient
safety, by requiring safe levels of
patient-to-caregiver ratios.
But collective bargaining is under attack in
Michigan.
State politicians want to strip away
critical workers’ rights – including collective
bargaining. To me, collective bargaining is a
life or death issue. When health care
professionals sit down to negotiate a contract,
the No. 1 topic is the ratio of caregivers to
patients.
Take away collective bargaining, and you
take away an important safety net for patients.
For me, it’s about protecting your loved ones
and making sure they get the care they need.
It’s also about protecting the middle
class. Collective bargaining gives all workers a
voice, and the ability to come together to
negotiate a fair contract.
Over the past year, state politicians
have moved one anti-worker measure after
another, doing nothing to help put Michigan back
to work. Now more than ever, workers need the
right to speak up and protect our wages and
benefits. Click here to join the fight to protect
collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining helps
protect our jobs, our wages and benefits, and
our safety on the job – as well as the safety of
my patients. Working men and women in Michigan
like you and me can’t afford to sit back and do
nothing while our rights are under attack.
Here's what's new on the AFT Michigan
Retiree website
Information at your fingertips From the 'AFT Retiree Email March 2012'
Wider Opportunities for Women has unveiled
its new Economic Security Database, which
provides local information on how much families
and older adults need to make ends meet.
In his new book, Rethinking Aging: Growing
Old and Living Well in an Overtreated Society,
69-year-old Nortin Hadler, M.D., turns his
attention to older Americans and the challenging
medical decisions they face. He says seniors
should re-evaluate the need for popular medical
treatments.
Most U.S. adults say they want to cut spending,
but they don't want to cut Social Security,
federal education aid or healthcare. See the
results of a new poll.
Learn more about these and other current
topics of interest to AFT Michigan Retirees at
the
AFT Michigan Retiree Network website.
Dear Jeff,
Yesterday, the House of Representatives Budget
Committee chairman, Paul Ryan, put forth a
budget proposal that continues the cuts-only
approach to our economy at a time when our
children and families continue to struggle to
get by.
The Ryan Republican budget prioritizes
huge tax breaks for the wealthy and big
corporations, while likely cutting money
from public education programs such as Title
I that go directly to support low-income
children in the classroom. It would end
Medicare as we know it and leave seniors
without access to affordable, high-quality
healthcare, and it would make college more
costly. It would do nothing to help
Americans find good jobs, keep their homes, and
ensure our children have a better and brighter
future.
The American people can’t afford a
reckless economic plan that says you’re on your
own unless you’re wealthy or a big corporation.
Instead, we need a bold economic vision that is
rooted in rebuilding the middle class,
strengthening our public schools and our
democracy, and ensuring that everyone has a fair
shot at success.
Urgent: Congress is rushing to deregulate
Wall Street—pushing a cynically named
“JOBS Act.” This bill could pass as early as
Monday.
Senate Democrats, including Jack Reed, Carl
Levin and Mary Landrieu, have offered the
"INVEST in America Act" to amend the "JOBS
Act" and make it less harmful. We need to
support these amendments while making it
clear that working families oppose
the so-called JOBS Act bill.
Workers’ retirement savings will be at
greater risk of fraud and speculation if
securities market deregulation once again is
railroaded through Congress. Our economy
will be at risk from the folly of
policymakers promoting financial bubbles and
ignoring the needs of the real economy.
Each AFT constituency publishes a monthly
Voices Question to poll the membership on
important issues. AFT members are the backbone
of our union; we value your opinions and want to
hear from you. Please share your thoughts.
Click on the question(s)
below to share your thoughts on that topic, and
read comments from other AFT members and allies:
The Michigan House and Senate passed legislation
that prevents K-12 school districts from
deducting dues from paychecks. That is
dues you voted on, authorized to be deducted,
and the deduction was bargained with your
employer. It is headed to the Governor for
his signature. If signed into law, and we
have no indication that anything else will
happen, it takes effect when a collective
bargaining agreement expires.
This legislation is clear retaliation for labor
going on the offensive yesterday launching our
petition drive to protect collective bargaining
in the Michigan constitution. This
legislation is designed to cripple AFT and MEA,
severely hurt the SEIU and AFSCME, and damage
other unions. There is no other reason for
it. The House Fiscal Agency said the
legislation will not save school districts any
money. And the Michigan Association of
School Administrators and Michigan Association
of School Boards said the legislation was
completely unnecessary and worked with us in
opposition. If anyone doubted it
before, this legislation makes it crystal clear.
They do not want us to exist.
Also today, the Republicans used trickery worthy
of David Copperfield to give immediate effect to
the bill stating Graduate Student Research
Assistants (GSRAs) are not employees. The
bill passed the Senate last week with immediate
effect. It passed the House last week, but
thanks to the Democrats was not given immediate
effect. Today the Senate took the content
of this bill, put it in another bill on a
different issue, a bill that the House had
already given immediate effect, and passed it.
When signed into law it will end our organizing
drive among 2,200 University of Michigan GSRAs.
If, or more likely, when these bills are signed
into law, we will go to court to challenge their
implementation as we believe both are
unconstitutional.
Our enemies probably see these bills as the nail
in the coffin of our union and organized labor.
They are wrong, dead wrong! I have no
intention of losing this war. Too many
have fought too hard over decades to build our
labor movement and secure many of the rights and
benefits we have today. Too many have
fought too hard to enhance public education.
My paternal grandfathers came to this country in
1911 and joined the Cap, Hat and Millinery
Workers Union. My dad headed the Insurance
Workers Union in his office, and my mom, a
member of the Hospital Workers Union in New
York, honored her union’s picket line after she
was promoted to management and her union struck.
My wife and I met through our AFT local, and
Alice spent over 20 years working at the UAW.
And our daughter … when GEO struck the
University of Michigan a few years back I told
my then student daughter we would meet at the
noon rally and then walk a picket line.
What did she do? She got up at 4:00 a.m.
to join a loading dock picket to stop
deliveries.
When my time comes, I have no intention of
seeing my grandparents and parents and having to
tell them the labor movement in Michigan died on
my watch. I have no intention of our
daughter and our sons not having a labor
movement. That’s not going to happen.
On Tuesday, labor launched our petition drive to
protect collective bargaining in the Michigan
constitution. Sign a petition, circulate a
petition. They are being delivered to your
local union. When we get the required
number of signatures the constitutional
amendment will be voted on in November.
And if you have not done so already give to PAC.
We can take back the Michigan House so bills
like those that passed today do not see the
light of day. And we must take back the
Michigan Supreme Court if our legal challenges
in state court stand a chance of succeeding.
In part, today was the most depressing day I
have ever spent as a 36 year member of the labor
movement. But you know what, things turned
around when I went into our Board room and saw
staff packaging up petitions, calling locals,
taking petitions out to be signed. Things
turned around when I received the update of our
PAC Honor Roll and the pages and pages of
members who have contributed from $100 dollars
to $1,000 dollars to the AFT MI or their local
union PAC.
We lost today, big, big time. No way
around that. But our labor movement has
come too far, has accomplished so much for so
many, has been the bedrock of the progressive
community for too many decades to ever be
counted out. We will take more hits.
But in the end, we will win. We will win
because of you. We will win because for
our children and our communities we have no
other choice.
In
the past year, Lansing has slashed education
budgets to give tax breaks to corporations.
Limits have been placed on our ability to come
together to collectively bargain our wages,
benefits, working conditions and even
evaluations. Many members are having 3% taken
out of their checks for retiree health care; and
if you have health care, you are likely paying
more under the “80/20” or “hard cap” law. All of
these things affect your ability to take care of
your family and do your job. We try and stop
these things by lobbying the Legislature and
when we need to, we go to the courts. But the
reality is that if we don’t like WHAT is
happening in Lansing, then we need to change WHO
is in Lansing making those decisions.
The AFT Michigan PAC supports candidates who
support our issues and are running in
competitive districts. It is funded by members
making voluntary contributions, since no dues
money can be used to financially support
candidates. This year we will be focusing on
electing 10 new friends in the Michigan House
and 3 Supreme Court justices. (The Michigan
Senate and the Governor are not up for election
in 2012.) In order to do that, we need your
contribution to the AFT Michigan PAC.
Again, if we don’t like what they are doing in
Lansing then we need to change who is in
Lansing. If every full-time dues payer makes a
contribution of $1 per week and all half and
quarter-time dues payers donated $.50 a week we
could make a large impact on who gets elected
this fall. Think about the effect of donating a
$1 or fifty-cents a week on your life. Think
about the effect of having the 3% deducted,
paying more for benefits, the pay freeze or pay
cut you had to agree to because of state budget
cuts in education.
Isn’t this small contribution to the AFT MI PAC
worth the investment to change who is making
those decisions?
We
have tried to make it as easy as possible for
you to contribute. By using the link you can
make a one-time or on-going contribution to the
AFT MI PAC using a credit card or an Electronic
Fund Transfer from your checking account. This
is done through a secure server and your
information will not be shared with anyone.
We
appreciate all you do for your students. Isn’t
it time you did something for yourself and your
family? Making a contribution to the AFT
Michigan PAC so that we can help elect folks who
respect educators and support Prek-12 public
education is critical to you, your family and
the future of Michigan.
Please make a contribution to the AFT MI PAC
today.
